The Wedding of Ianto Jones
by Trisana Artemis Cahill
Summary: Time broke when River Song refused to kill the Doctor at the lake in Utah. A whole new Alternate Reality was created in the fallout. A reality when all of time on Earth was crammed into one section. Pterodactyls flew in the sky, Churchill was the leader of the Roman Empire... And Ianto Jones was still alive. (Takes place during the Doctor Who episode "The Wedding of River Song")
1. I Get It Now

**A/N:** I love Ianto and Jack! Damn those script writers! Damn America too, for ruining season 4! This takes place during the Doctor Who episode with the eleventh doctor, titled The Wedding of River Song. It's about what our beloved Torchwood characters were doing during this time. They couldn't have just been sitting around, could they? Apparently, John Barrowman, was actually supposed to guest star in the Doctor Who episode, but couldn't due to filming of Miracle Day. Why? Just… why? I would have preferred him in one episode of Doctor Who, than 10 episodes of Miracle Day!

**Disclaimer:** Did Tosh and Owen finally get to be together? Did Gwen really ever stop her obsession with Jack? Did Jack ever wake up and realize what an amazing man was right in front of him? Obviously not, therefore, none of this is mine.

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"I can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"You have too!"

"He'll need my help!"

"He has me!"

"Are you immortal?"

"Well… no, not anymore."

"See? You need me!"

"Jack, listen to me!" shouted a woman. Her eyes ablaze in a mix of fury and pity, she glared at the man in the blue greatcoat standing before her. As she spoke, her blond, curly hair jumped and coiled.

The man would have found her incredibly attractive, if he had not already known that she was also incredibly taken.

She sighed, taking a deep breath, after the long shouting match between the two.

"Jack, you know the whole reason he avoided you in the first place was because you're a fixed point in time. Look around you Captain! The entire problem here is too many fixed points! You being near him won't solve anything. It will make the situation that much worse."

The man closed his eyes, visibly trying to calm himself down. His expression was one of defeat.

"Damn it River! Don't you think I don't know that already?" he shouted back. His face was young, but eyes were old, pull of sadness, and loss… so much loss. "I just don't know what to do, okay?"

River Song sighed, she knew better than most how Jack felt. Lost, confused, like the people around you were just hollow bodies. But she couldn't make an exception. Her Doctor's life depended on it.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah right." Jack scoffed

"No, really. You think you're the only one who feels alone all the time?" she said softly "How do you think I feel every day without him? My life goes backwards. The man I love knows me less and less the more I see him. The people I'm forced to be around all think that I'm a murdering psychopath! I was imprisoned for something that I won't even remember. Of course, the way things are looking, I might never get imprisoned after all. Gods! Time is so fucking confusing!"

A silence filled the room

"I'm sorry." Jack finally said. He looked down, fiddling with the buttons on his coat.

"Don't be." River said with a bitter laugh "I blame Rose Tyler, even if she didn't know what she was doing."

"Why? What did she do?"

"The day she made you immortal, she absorbed the soul of the TARDIS, before the Doctor saved her from the pressure. She saw everything those few minutes, and I think she inadvertently messed up my meeting times with the Doctor."

"Nice theory you got there."

"Can I ask you something Jack?"

"That depends. But give it a go."

"Would you give it back?"

Startled out of a relaxed state, Captain Jack Harkness stared up at the shocking blue eyes of River Song.

"Excuse me?"

"Would you give it back, the immortality?" she clarified "If you could go back and make different choices, would you find a way to avoid becoming like this?"

"I don't know. I've thought about it every once and a while, but I try not to dwell on things I can't control." He sighed. "If I were being completely honest with myself… no."

His eyes closed, his face slackened as got lost in memories.

"There are so many things that I've seen. Not just bad things, good things, beautiful things. And I met wonderful people, the most amazing, incredible, fantastic people who I wouldn't have missed for anything."

River looked like she wanted to ask something, remembering the team that the Doctor told her Jack once had, but the look of longing and pain on his face made her stop.

"That answer your question?" he asked bitterly

"Yes"

"So what is it exactly that you want me to do, if it's not help the Doctor?"

"Well you could do what you always do." She suggested

"What's that? Suffering, dark and moody?"

"No." she said, rolling her eyes "Fight aliens."

"But you just said – "

"Not the ones near him, the ones everywhere else." She insisted

"I think you just brought out the problem. They are everywhere! The world is in chaos. What could I do? Where would I even start?" he asked

"Start anywhere."

"And I'm supposed to take on all of Earth's aliens on by myself, am I?"

"What about that team of yours? Torchwood?"

He growled. "Torchwood is over. I disbanded it. All but one died."

She looked confused "But now that you're here… I thought you'd be happy – "

"Essentially, there's only Gwen and I left now. I doubt we could do much. And that's assuming I can even find her; that she even remembers anything of the other world. You've seen the people out here. They're different, have different jobs, and personalities. Why would Gwen be any different?"

"For the same reason as you and I." River said "We remember, and the Doctor remembers. His companion, Amelia Pond, remembers most everything. I've even heard that a certain Mrs. Martha Jones is having dreams of a blue box."

"How is that possible?"

"Because of the TARDIS. Being around large energies of time and space tends to give people advantages in matters of time and space. That Rift of yours in Cardiff, back when it still existed, had many of the same readings as the TARDIS. I'm willing to bet that Gwen will at least, start to remember."

Jack started to look hopeful, when something a memory hit him.

"It doesn't matter, not anymore."

"What is wrong with you? This is not how the Doctor described you!"

"Well what does the Doctor know about me anymore, huh? He left me alone for so long, we both changed. So don't you go around and try to tell me what I'm like. You don't know anything about me!"

His face red, his chest heaving, and tears in his eyes, Jack stood up from the chair, slamming his hands on the desk in front of River.

"They're dead. All of them." He said, his voice dropping to a soft whisper. "He's gone."

Abruptly, River realized why Jack was so upset. A small smirk played across her lips.

"You think he's gone?"

"I know he's gone." He snapped "He died in my arms during the 456 attack, and died again closing the Rift in the House of the Dead."

"Wow, dying twice, not something many humans can claim."

He grunted.

"But you know what else is totally and irreversibly dead?" She asked him, her face now sporting an ear splitting grin. "Pterodactyls."

"What does that have to do with – "

Suddenly, a loud shriek, pierced the air, a shadow turned the room dark. Jack turned towards the window in time to see a large creature resembling his missing pteranodon, Myfanwy, fly around the building.

River smirked as she watched the wheels in Jack's head turning.

Without warning, Jack turned on his heels, sprinting for the doorway, his clear head having identified something his depressed self, had previously missed.

He called out over his shoulder to River as he ran. "You don't have to worry about me and the Doctor anymore!"

"And why's that?" she called back as he disappeared from the room, already knowing the answer.

Jack peeked his head back through the doorframe, giving River a grin that hadn't been on his face in years.

"I'm going to find Ianto Jones."


	2. Help Me

**A/N:** Hello! You'll probably notice that I changed some things from the original story line. Although, it fits pretty well if you really think about it! So... Read and Review!

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"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes? Captain Jack Harkness!"

"Doctor Martha Jones!" Jack exclaimed, pulling her into a hug

"Well come on then! Come inside!" she said dragging him through the door

"Oh, of sex and stars! Martha! This house is astounding! No offense, but how can you afford it? Last I checked, UNIT wasn't very generous with its paychecks. It was all about the prestige." he asked, gazing at the beautiful patterns around the walls.

"It's the new job!" she said, sitting on a milky white couch in the living room "I have a new identify here. I'm an ambassador, I am. Travel the world to deal things out. Not much different than traveling with him really."

"So I take it you remember everything then?" He asked hopefully

"Mostly everything. I remember you, but everything after coming back from… that stolen Earth debacle, is a bit fuzzy.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Let's see, you and I were walking off, talking about Torchwood and how excited you were to see your team again. You were trying to convince me to come work at Torchwood, AGAIN! And that's it really."

"That's it? That's all you remember from that point on?" he asked

"That's it." She nodded "Why? Is there more that I should know of?"

Jack's eyes narrowed.

"Do you remember a man named Mickey Smith?" he asked cautiously

She racked her brain trying to bring up a thought about him. "He was a former companion of the Doctor. An ex-boyfriend of that special girl, Rose Tyler, the Doctor was always talking about. I remember he was helping that day the Earth was stolen, but I don't think we ever really spoke a word to each other. Why?"

Jack was shocked. "I can't believe you don't remember him!"

Martha became suspicious. "Jack… Is there something you're not telling me?"

He looked guilty and a bit confused. "Well, I just don't know how much I should tell you."

"It's an alternate universe, Jack. When the Doctor fixes things, and you know he will, none of this will have existed, and whatever it is that I'm supposed to know, I'll remember. So just tell me!"

Jack sighed, sitting down to tell the story. "We had just landed back on Earth. Everyone had said their good-byes to the Doctor and Donna. You and I started to walk off, when Mickey came to walk with us. He decided that his time in the other dimension was done, so he was going to try his chances in his own world again. And so yes, I offered you BOTH jobs at Torchwood. Mickey accepted, at least temporarily. Just to get integrated into this world again. You said that you liked being the inside connection to UNIT now that the Brigadier has retired, but that you would visit to help clean up the mess left in the Hub. I don't really know all of the details, you both did your best to hide it from me, but somehow you started a relationship with Mickey."

"I was in a relationship with Mickey Smith?" She asked incredulously "I seem to have a knack for falling for the Doctor's and Rose's leftovers, don't I?"

"Hey, don't say it like that! But yeah, that's what happened." He said as if he were as confused as she why the two had gotten together. "Anyway, the two of you had just gotten engaged, and he had finally convinced you to quit your job at UNIT. Everything seemed to be going fine, until we got a call from a covert American agency. Apparently there was a Sontaran raging in downtown Chicago. The American UNIT branch could have handled it, but they didn't want a huge deal made out of it. It was only one alien, and giant UNIT tanks and soldiers marching down the street would have been more panic than it was worth. They wanted Torchwood's help. So I sent you and Mickey on a freelance mission to take the Sontaran, Jask, down. Everything went downhill from there."

"How so?" she asked, her mind going crazy trying to process all the new information he was throwing at her.

"When you found Jask, you were in new territory. You were in a maze of a secret nuclear facility. The Sontaran had the upper ground. He would have killed you both. He almost did. But the Doctor saved you. He was dying. He was in the process of his eleventh regeneration and was making his run around his companions, saying good-bye. He saved your life. That's why when he came to say good-bye to me, almost a decade later, I knew what he was doing."

"He can't help but save people, can he?"

"He does his best. He doesn't always succeed, but he does his best."

"Okay, so he saved our lives. Then what?"

Jack's eyes grew dark. A haunted look appeared on his face.

"Jack?" Martha questioned, a thought just then occurring to her. "Why are you really here?"

"The Sontaran was down. Your mission was complete." He continued, choosing to ignore her question. "You were scheduled to come home in two days, after completing the tedious paper work needed by UNIT. However, that afternoon, not five hours after the Doctor left you in Chigago. A bomb blew up the Hub."

"What?!" Martha screeched

"The Prime Minister had ordered me killed, so they killed me, inserted a bomb in my stomach and detonated it when I got back to the Hub. Luckily, Gwen and Ianto escaped, Myfanwy too, because they never found her body. I was captured, and let me just say, that was one of the worst revives I've ever had in my life? It was up there with the Master dunking my body in acid!" he shuddered at the memories.

"Anyway," he continued "We were on the run, you and Mickey were still in the States, and none of us could get in contact with you. By the time we got ahold of you, every government on Earth was in panic and every airport was on lockdown. You were trapped."

"Why was the Earth in panic?"

"There was an alien threat, called the 456. They wanted 10 percent of the Earth's children, and our leaders were just going to give them up."

"How could they do something like that?" she demanded

"Politicians are selfish, single-minded, cowards. Would you have expected anything different?"

She sat there, thinking over how to respond, finally landing on: "I'm a politician now too, you know?"

"Yes," he agreed "But you are also Martha Jones, which makes any and all negative feedback non-existent."

She laughed, before her face turned serious again.

"You still haven't answered my question yet, Jack." She challenged "Why are you here?"

"Isn't seeing a co-time paradox apocalypse survivor again a good enough reason?"

"Not when you're telling her alien attack stories like they were the end of the world! We've been through enough of them to know when it's serious." She said "Now tell me. Why are you here?"

Jack sighed again, dreading finally getting to his point.

"During the 456 attack, one of my teammates and I went to threaten the alien ambassador that was occupying Thames House. We… I… Things didn't go as planned." He choked out "The alien released a poisonous toxin into the air, killing everyone in the building."

"Everyone?" she asked, the reason for his solemnness finally occurring to her when he nodded. "Which teammate was with you?"

"Ianto." He admitted, forcefully

"Oh Jack, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. Martha didn't know what to do. She wanted to comfort him, to hug him. But she also knew that might make him distance himself even further.

"Yeah, me too." He said bitterly. "Anyway, that's why I'm here."

"Why would…? Ahh!" she realized "You think that Ianto could still be alive in this time frame. With time so messed up, all different time periods are clashing. He could be out there couldn't he?"

"You always were so clever." Jack cheered "It took me days to realize it! Even after River tried to explain it to me, it took me longer than it should have."

"Who's River?"

Jack froze "Ummm… that's something I'd rather not go into right now."

"Alright." Martha said hesitantly, deciding to trust Jack's judgment. "So what can I do to help?"

"I'd hoped you would say that!" Jack said joyously "I was wondering if I could use your database to track down Ianto."

"Well I'm not sure how much clearance I have as of now. We've been in this new life both for a life time and for only a few days. I'm still getting used to it."

"You and me both."

"But I'll do what I can to help." She assured him

"That's all I can ask." He said gratefully. "So, shall we get started?"


End file.
